US forces on Monday conducted strikes in southern Iran against targets including boats attempting to lay mines and missile launch sites, in what it described as defensive actions.
The strikes came as Iran’s top negotiator and its foreign minister were in Doha for talks with Qatar’s prime minister on a potential deal with the US to end the three-month-old war, an official briefed on the visit said on Monday, after Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in New Delhi earlier that the US would give diplomacy every chance to succeed before considering whether to deal with Iran in “another way.”
There was a “pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the strait (of Hormuz), get the strait open, enter into a very real, significant, time-limited negotiation on the nuclear matter, and hopefully we can pull it off,” Rubio said.
China on Tuesday urged “parties concerned” to observe a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war, after US forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran as well as boats trying to lay mines, AFP reported.
“We urge the parties concerned to fulfil their ceasefire commitments, resolve disputes through peaceful means … and promote the early restoration of peace,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news briefing when asked for China’s reaction.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social on Monday, US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran were going “nicely,” but warned of fresh attacks if they failed. It “will only be a Great Deal for all, or no Deal at all,” he wrote.
Hours later, US Central Command said in a statement it had carried out fresh strikes designed “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces.”
“US Central Command continues to defend our forces while using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” said Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a Central Command spokesperson.
Also Monday, Iran said it had downed a “hostile” stealth drone using a new air defense system, Iranian news agencies reported, without saying where it had come from.
“This is a sign from us that no more stealth drones can penetrate the skies of the Arabian Gulf,” Fars quoted unnamed officials as saying.
In another indication of the region’s tensions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday Israel would intensify strikes against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Israel’s military soon thereafter said it was attacking Hezbollah infrastructure in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley and other areas.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire in mid-April, but Israel has continued airstrikes it says are acts of self-defense against Hezbollah, which was not party to the truce.
The official briefed on the Iranians’ Doha visit told Reuters the discussions focused on the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, while Iran’s central bank governor attended to discuss the potential release of frozen Iranian funds as part of a final deal.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said earlier that nuclear issues would only be negotiated after the framework accord was agreed.
Trump has said his key aim in the war is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon with its highly enriched uranium. Tehran has consistently denied it has plans to do that.
In his Truth Social post, Trump also called on more Arab and Muslim states to sign up to the Abraham Accords, brokered during his first term in office and aimed at normalizing ties between those states and Israel. He said Saudi Arabia and Qatar should immediately sign and Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Turkiye should follow suit, calling his request mandatory.
A Pakistani source familiar with the matter said that the statement reflected an attempt to use the Iran diplomacy for a wider push around the accords — but that the two issues were “not interlinked and cannot be made so.”
Others saw the suggestion as aimed at making an Iran deal more palatable to skeptics.
“Trump is trying to sell an Iran deal as an Abraham Accords sequel: good for Israel, good for the region, tough enough for Washington,” said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.
“But he is trading one fantasy for another — from forcing Iran to surrender to pretending a fragile deal can anchor a new Middle East order.”
Baghaei said the potential Iran deal contained no specific details on management of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually flows.
Iran will not charge tolls for ships to pass through but there will be a cost for services offered such as navigation and steps to protect the environment, he said, under a protocol to be agreed with Oman, which lies on the opposite shore of the waterway.
Citing a Middle East diplomatic source, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported the US and Iran were discussing a plan to open the strait about 30 days after reaching a deal to end hostilities.
Iran would then clear mines from the strait during a 30-day window, after which ships from all countries could navigate freely and safely, Nikkei reported. Since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, only a few dozen vessels have been passing through the Strait of Hormuz compared with 125 to 140 daily previously.
Iran’s state TV said on Monday that 32 vessels and five oil tankers passed through the strait in the past 24 hours with the authorization of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval forces. The standoff has caused a spike in oil prices and driven up the costs of fuel, fertilizer and food. On Monday, oil prices fell more than 4 percent to two-week lows amid optimism that a deal might come soon.
Iran says the US has committed a "gross violation" of the ceasefire with new air strikes it launched on the country in the past 48 hours.
The US Central Command (Centcom) said Iranian missile sites and boats attempting to place mines had been targeted with what it called "self-defence strikes" in southern Iran on Monday.
Iran's foreign ministry said it held the US responsible for the consequences of its "aggressive and unjustified actions" in the Hormozgan region, which has a coast along the Strait of Hormuz - the crucial waterway Iran has blocked causing a spike in world energy prices.
It is unclear what impact the strikes will have on talks aimed to end the conflict.
"Without a doubt, the Islamic Republic of Iran will not leave any evil unanswered and will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation," the Iranian statement said.
However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a deal from the talks was still possible, but it would "take a few days".
One of the stumbling blocks reportedly centres on Tehran's request for the release of frozen Iranian funds held abroad
The talks have been mainly mediated by Pakistan.
However, Iranian negotiators have been taking parts in Qatar this week.
An official briefed on the Doha visit told Reuters news agency that Iran's central bank governor had attended Monday's talks to discuss the frozen assets, with discussions focusing primarily on Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has effectively blocked the vital shipping lane, through which around one fifth of the world's oil passes, since the US and Israel started the conflict on 28 February.
US, Israel and many Western countries have accused Iran of enriching uranium in order to make a nuclear weapon. Iran says the programme is for peaceful purposes only.
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US-Iran War